NHL Network rolled out the next chunk of its Top 50 Players Right Now list on Sunday, covering spots 30 through 21. One name in that group has dominated the conversation since: Jack Hughes at No. 26.
The company he’s keeping in that range is what set fans off. Nick Suzuki landed at 21, followed by Igor Shesterkin, Matt Boldy, Jason Robertson and Matthew Tkachuk, with Hughes slotted in behind all of them. Lane Hutson, Matthew Schaefer, Jake Sanderson and Moritz Seider rounded out the group at 27 through 30.
Jack Hughes 26th
For a fan base that watched Hughes put up 77 points in 61 games last season, that placement didn’t sit well.
“Jack Hughes disrespect. Should be at minimum 22,” one fan wrote.
“Jack Hughes is top 16ish imo,” another said.
“Sleeping on Jack Hughes, top 15 for sure,” a third added, while someone else simply called it “insane Jack disrespect.”
Others went further still. “Jack Hughes is top 10 easily if healthy,” one fan argued.
That last qualifier is exactly where the other side of the argument lives, and plenty of fans made that case too.
“PPG in Jack Hughes, but he’s missed an average of 20 games a season. Are there no other players with the same stats that have completed an entire season? This guy hasn’t,” one fan pointed out.
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The numbers back that up. Hughes has played more than 62 games in a season exactly once in his career, the 2022-23 campaign when he racked up 99 points in 78 games. He missed 16 games plus the final four of 2023-24 before shoulder surgery, sat out 25 games including the entire playoff run in 2024-25 after another shoulder procedure, and missed 21 more last season – 18 of them consecutively after cutting his hand on glass at a team dinner and needing surgery. A separate lower-body injury cost him time in late January.
When he has been on the ice, the production has rarely been in question. Hughes led New Jersey in scoring last season despite the missed time, and he scored the overtime winner against Canada in the gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics. He’s signed with the New Jersey Devils through 2030 at an $8 million cap hit.
As one fan put it while watching the argument unfold: “Good debate fuel.”
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